US forces anchored off Liberia, still hesitant to commit

August 6 2003By David ClarkeMonrovia

Picture: AFPThe first contingent of Nigerian troops arrives at the Monrovia international airport in Liberia.

United States warships arrived off Liberia to buttress peacemaking efforts yesterday as the sound of gunfire underscored the task facing a West African force trying to end 14 years of murder and mayhem.

The US has yet to decide whether to commit ground troops to a land founded by freed American slaves more than 150 years ago, a land where hundreds of thousands of people face hunger and disease and have endured bullets and shrapnel.

A senior US defence official said the helicopter carrier USS Iwo Jima, the assault ship leading a three-vessel amphibious group, was near the coast along with the USS Carter Hall. The USS Nashville is expected within a few days.

The ships are carrying about 2300 US Marines.

The official said that among the possibilities being discussed for US involvement in Liberia was to use the ships to help the new West African peacekeeping force with communications and logistics. ");document.write("

advertisement

");
}
}
// -->

About 200 Nigerian soldiers flew into the airport near the capital Monrovia on Monday, triggering celebrations on both sides of a front line in a city where 2000 have died in three rebel attacks since June.

The hope is that the peacekeepers will be able to keep the rebels and President Charles Taylor's forces apart, open routes for the desperately needed aid and allow President Taylor to step down and go into exile.

Brigadier-General Festus Okonkwo, the Nigerian force commander, said his men would need a few days to settle in before embarking on street patrols and about a week before they could move to the rebel-held port. "There is fighting going on, but that will not stop us from deploying," he said.

While both sides have welcomed the deployment, the gunfire between the opposing forces has not stopped.

Front lines on three key bridges in the swamp-bound city have shifted little as the death toll has climbed.

Aid agencies keep trying to organise convoys across the front line to stem the growing humanitarian disaster, but have yet to get a simultaneous green light from both sides during a lull in fighting.

If President Taylor keeps his promise to resign on Monday he will be given asylum in Nigeria.